Florida International Universitys (FIUs) proposed second-phase NSF CREST Center for Innovative Information Systems Engineering brings together a multidisciplinary group of researchers, large-scale collaborative relationships, and a broad ecosystem of partners to perform research that will lead to information technologies that help to solve critical societal problems of national priority. Intellectual Merit: Each of the Centers mutually-supportive subprojects builds on the strong research foundation established by FIUs first-phase CREST award and each sets ambitious research goals that will result in the increased competitiveness of FIUs CISE researchers. By intertwining these multidisciplinary research goals with CRESTs comprehensive education environment and by leveraging the synergistic academic and industry partnerships introduced above, the Subprojects provide one another with strong impetus for cohesiveness and potential for new research findings and educational breakthroughs: Subproject 1: Effective Access to Complex Multimodal Data with Applications in Disaster Mitigation will focus on developing effective techniques for managing and providing access to data that varies in type, source, location, time, and certainty by addressing storage optimization, data management, indexing and search, query techniques, and data presentation. Among its applications, it seeks to develop techniques to get the right information to the right people at the right time, thereby helping to mitigate disasters and to recover from them quickly. Subproject 2: Integrated Approach to Information Processing in Neuroscience focuses on an integrated imaging/signal processing approach that will result in comprehensive views of the human brain in greater depth and detail through faster, affordable, more effective, and less invasive methods. Subproject 3: Human Computer Interaction for Universal Access has a long-term goal of enabling any prospective computer user to interact with computer-based systems, regardless of their disability status and regardless of the interaction challenges derived from the context in which the interaction is taking place. Subproject 4: Complex System Modeling, Analysis, and Realization will focus on essential methodologies for modeling complex systems, a unified underlying semantic model, fundamental methods for compositional model analysis, and model-driven engineering technologies. Broader Impacts: The Center will build upon the solid research foundation and flourishing educational pipeline developed over the course of FIU's first-phase CREST funding. Its research program will develop effective techniques for managing information, for modeling information, natural, and man-made systems, and for providing access to information while its educational program strives to become the nations leader in training underrepresented Ph.D. students in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. The proposed research areas cross the boundaries of computer science and engineering, information processing, situational awareness, assistive technology, and neuroscience; this integrative approach of research will significantly advance the body of knowledge in these important fields and will make strides to solving some of societys critical problems.
